Grey's Anatomy Relationship Drama: Who May Be Doomed?

Wednesday

May 8, 2013 at 12:01 AMMay 8, 2013 at 8:22 AM

As Grey's Anatomy heads towards its ninth season finale, it seems the impending super storm won't be the only trouble for the Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital docs!We already know Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) will face some problems on the baby front, ...

TV Guide

As Grey's Anatomy heads towards its ninth season finale, it seems the impending super storm won't be the only trouble for the Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital docs!

We already know Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) will face some problems on the baby front, but it's the relationship front that has everyone worried. Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) may cheat on Callie (Sara Ramirez), Cristina (Sandra Oh) may have to break up with Owen (Kevin McKidd) again because of the baby issue and Alex (Justin Chambers) may finally find his person in Jo (Camilla Luddington). With so many futures up in the air, TVGuide.com turned to executive producer Shonda Rhimes to get the scoop:

Grey's Anatomy Finale Scoop: Will Meredith and the baby survive?

Arizona and Callie: Arizona is skating on thin ice after striking up a flirtation with Lauren Boswell (Hilarie Burton), a doctor from another hospital who is assisting with a GSM case and has it bad for Dr. Robbins, who happens to be married to Callie, lest anyone has forgotten. Remember, outraged fans: Happy people don't make for good storytelling!

"From a storytelling perspective, they could be happy and hold hands and skip around, I guess, and that would be fine, but they would get two seconds of screen time. Or we could really present them with some really complex challenges and allow them to deal with them and to see some interesting things," Rhimes says and adds that she's been reading up on how people deal with grief and PTSD, something both Callie and Arizona have struggled with since the plane crash.

Unfortunately, Arizona cheating is a very real possibility, with Rhimes insisting this the situation won't just amount to unrequited glances and promo trickery. "Have you ever known me to do that?"

"I don't know where they're going to end up out of this, I really don't," she continues. "But I do know that both Jessica and Sara and myself, we're all really excited about it. It's a very thrilling story for these characters and really complex. It allows for a lot of interesting growth, movement and change. It's a journey and we'll see where it goes. Where we're heading this season is the culmination of the journey that we've been on all season long."

Grey's Anatomy Finale Scoop: A super storm heads to Seattle!

Cristina and Owen: With the introduction of Ethan, the son of two patients - one of which has died and the other of which is in a coma - Owen's desire for children has bubbled up to the surface, something that caused him and Cristina to re-evaluate their marriage the first time around. But Rhimes stands by her decision to make Cristina uncompromising when it comes to children. So could they even find a compromise? "I don't know," Rhimes admits. "I don't know what compromise you make when one person wants kids and one doesn't."

"I feel like we have a character who is a genius," Rhimes continues. "She's a surgical genius and she feels a hum when she's performing surgery, and it makes her feel whole and she does not feel a need to have children. She feels very complete without it, and Owen does not feel the same way. I feel like that is a fundamental problem in their relationship, and they've been avoiding it for a million reasons, one of which was that she was in a plane crash and she was trying to pull herself together."

Both Cristina and Owen will have a big decision to make in regards to their relationship, and Rhimes notes there's a million different directions this could go. "Cristina could make the horrible mistake of deciding she's going to have a kid for him," she says. "Cristina could make the horrible mistake that she's just going to walk away from him. He could make the horrible mistake of saying that he's going to walk away from her or have a kid on his own. They're going to have to face that and figure out what that means for them. This journey is going to be interesting because I do think no matter what that they truly love each other."

Must-watch finales: Scoop on your favorite season-enders

Alex and Jo: Last week's episode left Alex in a very difficult and interesting position: After Jo told him to stay away, she showed up at his house bruised and beaten, presumably by Chest Peckwell (Charles Michael Davis), who she just moved in with. "We're going to see some real interesting growth from Alex in the next episode," Rhimes says. "Maybe it's sideways growth and maybe it's backwards growth, but it's going to be a new side of Alex. He's going to discover some stuff about himself and we're going to discover some stuff about Jo."

Alex, in particular, has had a rough time going through relationships during his tenure at GSM (formerly known as Seattle Grace). Mostly, he's had a lot of crazy in his life - Rebecca (Elizabeth Reaser) and Izzie (Katherine Heigl). But there could be a real chance that Jo turns into Alex's person. "Whether or not he's going to have the courage to step up and feel his feelings is going to be really interesting," she continues. "Maybe she's his person, maybe not. That remains to be seen."

Do you think Jo is Alex's person? Should Cristina and Owen break up? How mad will you be if Arizona cheats on Callie?! Hit the comments!

Grey's Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9/8c on ABC.

View original Grey's Anatomy Relationship Drama: Who May Be Doomed? at TVGuide.com